Karnataka: Sex racket busted in Bellary

Bangalore: A sex racket was busted in Karnataka's Bellary town with 35 people arrested and 44 women, including 23 minors, being rescued, a senior police official said Sunday.

"We raided a dozen hideouts in the town on a tip-off and arrested the accused, including three men and 32 sex workers while rescuing 21 women and 23 girls below 18 years, including three (minors) from Dhaka (Bangladesh)," Bellary's Superintendent of Police Chetan Singh Kishore told IANS.

Bellary is around 300 km from here. Of the rescued women and minors, about 20 of them are from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra while the remaining are from northern districts of the state like Belgaum and Bagalkote.

The 23 minors were sent to Bal Bhavan in Bangalore and the remaining 21 women have been kept at Sreeniketan at Bellary.

"The accused have been remanded to judicial custody till Aug 30 and cases have been registered against them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including for trafficking and under the new law - Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act," Kishore said.

The 23 minors were sent to Bal Bhavan in Bangalore and the remaining 21 women have been kept at Sreeniketan at Bellary.

Justice & Care, a Bangalore-based NGO, which surveyed the town on complaints from many families in the Gautam Nagar and adjacent areas in Bellary, said they were shocked to find that the accused were forcing the rescued women and minors into organised sex crimes.